It Won't Be Like This For Long
by piper maru duchovny
Summary: This phase is gonna fly by, if you can just hold on, it won't be like this for long. Mulder's thoughts at his daughter's graduation.


**It Won't Be Like This For Long**

**Summary: this phase is gonna fly by, so baby just hold on, it won't be like this for long -Darius Rucker**

**A/N: I heard this song on the radio the other day and I almost had to pull over from crying. It really made me think of what Mulder would be like as a daddy to a little girl. **

**Disclaimer: don't own. zoom in on my empty wallet. **

"Scout Elizabeth Mulder." The Headmaster called from the podium on the stage. Three thousand people were crammed into the gymnasium of the private school, "Graduating with a 4.0 GPA, she will be attending Northwestern University in the fall."

Fox Mulder felt his wife squeeze his hand tightly and he ran his thumb over her wrist as their daughter walked across the stage. It was foreign to him, that his daughter was eighteen, in two months she would leave the home she grew up in and set off across the country to start her own life. Just a few weeks ago, they had been sitting in the kitchen, discussing her choice of colleges when he realized that she wasn't a little girl anymore, she was an adult.

_"Scout, you know Georgetown is a great school. They have an equally good program for pre-med. You don't have to go all the way to Illinois for this." Mulder had said, his eyes brimming with tears._

_"I know." Scout chewed on her lip, there she sat before him. Long gone was the little girl who needed Daddy to push her on the swings and hold her hand when she crossed the street, before him sat a woman._

_"Why Northwestern?" Mulder asked, but he already knew. It was the only school Scout had talked about since she was eleven years old. _

_"You know why, Daddy. It's just something I have to do." Scout explained._

_"I know." Mulder said, admitting his defeat. _

_"I'm still gonna come home. Holidays and stuff. Really, you won't even miss me." She tried to brush over it._

_"Now," Mulder reached out and took her hand, "You know for a fact that, that is not true."_

Scout glanced over her shoulder, her diploma in her hands, she smiled at her dad. Her blue eyes met his and she grinned, "I love you." she mouthed.

"Love you too." He mouthed back, his heart swelling with pride for his little girl.

_"I HATE YOU!" She had screamed, she stood before him, thirteen years old. Tears falling down, her long brown hair sticking to her face._

_"Scout!" Mulder had tried to reason with her, but before he could finish, she turned on her heel, marching up the stairs -Converse thudding on the wooden steps. She walked into her room, slamming the door behind her. _

_"What's going on?" Scully had asked, coming out of the kitchen, a concerned look covered her face. Scout was a daddy's girl through and through, the outburst was highly unusual._

_"I went to pick her up at the library and interrupted her make-out session with some little punk." Mulder said and fell down on the couch._

_"Making out?" Scully's eyebrow raised, "Scout? The girl who just last week told me and I quote 'Boys are so stupid. I, like, hate them' was making out with a boy?"_

_"Yeah." Mulder nodded._

_"What'd you do?" Scully asked, sitting down next to him. _

_"I pulled the little punk off her and told him if I ever saw him with Scout again he wouldn't have hands to touch her with." Mulder explained._

_"Mulder.." Scully chuckled, "She's gonna hate you for awhile."_

_"That's comforting." Mulder said dryly._

_"She's thirteen. This boy, he's just the first of many."_

Scully had been right, of course, Scout had stomped around for a few days and then it was as if nothing had happened. Mulder was brought back to the present by the Headmaster presenting the graduates and all the caps flying into the air. Everyone cheered and Mulder shook his head as he watched Scout catch her cap and spin around in a circle.

Mulder and Scully filed, hand in hand, out of the auditorium, following the other families. Mulder looked around, searching through the crowd of blue caps and gowns for his daughter.

"DADDY!" Scout called from behind them and they turned around. Mulder smiled, there she stood in her gown, her jeans and converse sticking out from underneath. _'I'm not dressing up for something when it's gonna be covered.' _she had told them.

"There's my graduate." Mulder smiled, Scout hugged him tightly and he dropped Scully's hand to hug her with both arms, lifting her off the ground a few inches.

"We're so proud of you." Scully smiled, squeezing her daughter's arm.

"Thanks." Scout grinned, holding her diploma tightly, like she couldn't believe it was real.

"So, are you hungry?" Mulder asked, "Uncle John and Aunt Monica are back at the house, getting food ready."

"Sure." Scout smiled, "I'm gonna get a ride from Jake, okay?"

Jake was Scout's boyfriend and had been since her sophomore year, "Of course." Scully told her.

"Yeah, we'll see you there." Mulder smiled.

"Thank you." She said and ran off to go find her boyfriend.

_"Daddy, Daddy!" Seven year old, Scout called from her room. _

_"What?" Mulder asked, sprinting in._

_"Time for stories." Scout smiled, her hair damp from her shower, she stood in her pajamas. _

_"Alright, Baby." Mulder picked her up and placed her on the bed. He tucked her under her Disney Princess covers and laid down on the bed beside her, "Snug as a bug in a rug?"_

_"Snug as a bug in a rug." She repeated, giggling._

_"Okay. Say your prayers and Daddy will read to you." Mulder said, brushing the hair from her face._

_"Mmkay." Scout clasped her hands and bowed her head, "Dear Jesus, it's me, Scout Elizabeth Mulder. Thank you Jesus for the good time I had today. I like it when Mommy is home from the hospickle and we all get to spend time together. God, if it could snow tomorrow and we could have a delay, that'd be really cool." Mulder chuckled quietly as she continued her prayer, "God bless Daddy and Mommy, Uncle John, Aunt Monica and Baby Isabeth. God bless Grandma Scully and Uncle Charlie and Uncle Bill and Aunt Tara and Aunt Michelle and Matty and Daniel and everyone else I know. Thank you God, in your Son's name. Amen."_

_"Amen." Mulder smiled, pressing a kiss to her forehead. _

Mulder sat at the picnic table, everyone had showed up for the dinner. Scully sat beside him, Maggie, Bill, Charlie, their families, John and Monica had all turned up for the dinner, even Skinner had managed to get out of work.

"Jake!" Scout squealed, running into the backyard, her cap and gown in her arms, feet pounding across the grass as her boyfriend chased her with a worm he'd found on the sidewalk.

Scully chuckled, watching the two, "You ok?" She whispered in his ear.

"I'm fine." Mulder said as he watched Jake drop the worm and kiss his little girl. It wasn't so long ago that Fox Mulder had been _the_ man in his daughter's world.

_"Daddy! Don't go." Scout clung to his leg._

_"I'm sorry." Mulder told the pre-school teacher as he tried to pry Scout off his leg._

_"It's not a big deal. Give her a few weeks and she'll be fine." The teacher reassured him, kneeling down to Scout's level, "We're gonna color today, do you want to join us?"_

_"NO! I want my Daddy." Scout said and wrapped her arms tighter around her Daddy's legs. _

_"Baby," Mulder scooped her up, "Daddy loves you, but you're gonna have fun at school and Daddy will be right back at noon."_

_"Promise?" Scout sniffled._

_"I promise." Mulder said, kissing her nose._

Mulder stood outside Scout's door that night, he hadn't felt like crying in such a long time. The last time he had cried was when Scout had been in a car wreck a few weeks after getting her license. He placed his hands on the door frame and rested his head against her door. It was covered with pictures, pictures of her friends, of family vacations.

He opened the door a crack and smiled at the sight. Scout's leg was hanging over the side of the bed and her hair was everywhere. He stepped into the room, walking over, he sat on the edge of her bed, brushing the hair from her face.

_Mulder sat at the kitchen table, sipping a cup of coffee before him, head in hands. He'd been up all night with Scout, she had colic terribly and had screamed her head off most of the night. He had just got her to go to sleep._

_"Thanks for getting up with her." Scully kissed his cheek._

_"You're welcome." Mulder said, leaning back against her._

_"Someday, not any time soon, mind you," Scully chuckled, stealing a sip of his coffee, "You're gonna miss this."_

_"This?" Mulder raised his eyebrows in disbelief._

And he did miss it. Mulder pressed a kiss to his daughter's forehead, his little girl. He had a thousand memories of her as his little girl, but starting today he was gaining memories of his grown up daughter.

**A/N: It literally only took me an hour to write this because the song set it up so beautifully. Really, even if you hate country music, you should at least check out the lyrics. Please do not ask me why I didn't include William, really. I didn't think about it. It just worked that way. **


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